|
March 23, 2002
Saeed Vaseghi
The US and Iran's Quest
for Democracy
Brian
J. Foley
Does
Pedophilia Scandal Spell an Opportunity for Catholics?
Sheperd Bliss
American Soul and Empire
James
Packard Winkler
Occupation
and Terror:
Politics from a Gun Barrel
M. Shahid Alam
A New International Division
of Labor
T.W. Croft
Enron's
Attack on Our
Economic Security
March 22, 2002
Robert Jensen
Corporate Power is a
Threat to Democracy
Tommy
Ates
The
Future of Black Academia
Rep. Ron Paul
Why are We in Ukraine?
March 21, 2002
McQuinn,
Munson, & Wheeler
Stars
and Stripes:
Killing for the Flag?
John Chuckman
How Change is Wrought
David
Vest
Hail
to the Chaff
March 20, 2002
Kay Lee
Censorship at Angelfire
Robert
Jensen
The
Politics of Pain
and Pleasure
Sheperd Bliss
Notes from Hawai'i:
Trouble in Paradise
Rick Giambetti
Prozac
and Suicide:
an Interview with
Dr. David Healy
Philip Farruggio
Bullies
Lori Allen
Live
from Ramallah:
The Madness of Occupation
March
19, 2002
Tariq
Ali
Nuke
Iraq?
Phyllis
Pollack
Roger
Daltrey's LA Surprise
Amir Ahmadi
War-Mongering
Academics:
The New Tartuffe
Ben White
Bomber
Blair
Fran Shor
Child-Murderers
and Madmen
March
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Crazy
is Cool
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
What's Playing At My House
Armen
Khanbabyan
The
Pentagon in the Caucasus:
Georgia Is Only the Beginning
Gabriel
Ash
Abdullah
v. Osama
Bernard
Weiner
Middle
East for Dummies
Alexander
Cockburn
Tipping
in America
March
17, 2002
David
Vest
The
Politics of Packaging
Tariq
Ali
The
Left's New Empire Loyalists
March
16, 2002
Chris
Floyd
Ashcroft's
Secret Snatches
March 15, 2002
Doron Rosenblum
Israel's Settler Warlords
Alex Lynch
Rhetorical
Attacks On Iraq
Norman Madarasz
Neo-Con Propaganda
and the National Review
Paul-Marie
de La Gorce
Making
Enemies
March
14, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
RIP
Danny Pearl
Francis
Boyle
Bush
Nuke Plan Violates International Law, Again
Wayne
Saunders
Memo
to Paul McCartney:
There Are Two Kinds
of Freedom, Sir
H.P. Albarelli
Anthrax
Cover-up?
March
13, 2002
Amira
Hass
Are
the Occupied Protecting the Occupier?
CounterPunch
Wire
National
Review Editors Suggest Nuking Mecca
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Personal
Responsibility
for Corporate Elites?
Robert
Fisk
Arabs
Don't Want US
to Strike Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
When
Billy Graham Wanted
to Kill One Million People
March
12, 2002
Kay Lee
Dangerous
Changes in
California's Prisons
John Patrick
Leary
The
Return of Otto Reich
Wole Akande
US
is Being Discredited
in the Eyes of Africa
March
11, 2002
Hani Shukrallah
This
is the Way the World Ends
Tommy
Ates
Bush's
New Nuke Policy:
Target Allies and Enemies
Lidia Andrusenko
The Great
Chicken War:
Bush v. Putin
Dave Marsh
10
CDs Playing On My Desk
John Chuckman
Footprints
in the Dust
Norman
Madarasz
Max
Steel in a Time of Chaos
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
March 24 - March
30, 2002
The Military Draft and Slavery
By Rep.
Ron Paul
I rise to introduce legislation expressing the
sense of Congress that the United States government should not
revive military conscription. Supporters of conscription have
taken advantage of the events of September 11 to renew efforts
to reinstate the military draft. However, reviving the draft
may actually weaken America's military. Furthermore, a military
draft violates the very principles of individual liberty this
country was founded upon. It is no exaggeration to state that
military conscription is better suited for a totalitarian government,
such as the recently dethroned Taliban regime, than a free society.
Since military conscription ended over
30 years ago, voluntary armed services have successfully fulfilled
the military needs of the United States. The recent success of
the military campaign in Afghanistan once again demonstrates
the ability of the volunteer military to respond to threats to
the lives, liberty, and property of the people of the United
States.
A draft weakens the military by introducing
tensions and rivalries between those who volunteer for military
service and those who have been conscripted. This undermines
the cohesiveness of military units, which is a vital element
of military effectiveness. Conscripts also are unlikely to choose
the military as a career; thus, a draft will do little to address
problems with retention. With today's high-tech military, retention
is the most important personnel issue and it seems counter-productive
to adopt any policy that will not address this important issue.
If conscription helps promote an effective
military, then why did General Vladisova Putilin, Chief of the
Russian General Staff, react to plans to end the military draft
in Russia, by saying "This is the great dream of all servicemen,
when our army will become completely professional...?"
Instead of reinstating a military draft,
Congress should make military service attractive by finally living
up to its responsibility to provide good benefits and pay to
members of the armed forces and our nation's veterans. It is
an outrage that American military personnel and veterans are
given a lower priority in the federal budget than spending to
benefit politically powerful special interests. Until this is
changed, we will never have a military which reflects our nation's
highest ideals.
Mr. Speaker, the most important reason
to oppose reinstatement of a military draft is that conscription
violates the very principles upon which this country was founded.
The basic premise underlying conscription is that the individual
belongs to the state, individual rights are granted by the state,
and therefore politicians can abridge individual rights at will.
In contrast, the philosophy which inspired America's founders,
expressed in the Declaration of Independence, is that individuals
possess natural, God-given rights which cannot be abridged by
the government. Forcing people into military service against
their will thus directly contradicts the philosophy of the Founding
Fathers. A military draft also appears to contradict the constitutional
prohibition of involuntary servitude.
During the War of 1812, Daniel Webster
eloquently made the case that a military draft was unconstitutional:
"Where is it written in the Constitution,
in what article or section is it contained, that you may take
children from their parents, and parents from their children,
and compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the
folly or the wickedness of Government may engage it? Under what
concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first
time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample
down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty? Sir,
I almost disdain to go to quotations and references to prove
that such an abominable doctrine had no foundation in the Constitution
of the country. It is enough to know that the instrument was
intended as the basis of a free government, and that the power
contended for is incompatible with any notion of personal liberty.
An attempt to maintain this doctrine upon the provisions of the
Constitution is an exercise of perverse ingenuity to extract
slavery from the substance of a free government. It is an attempt
to show, by proof and argument, that we ourselves are subjects
of despotism, and that we have a right to chains and bondage,
firmly secured to us and our children, by the provisions of our
government."
Another eloquent opponent of the draft
was former President Ronald Reagan who in a 1979 column on conscription
said:
"...it rests on the assumption that
your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then
it is for the state - not for parents, the community, the religious
institutions or teachers - to decide who shall have what values
and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society.
That assumption isn't a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great
idea."
President Reagan and Daniel Webster are
not the only prominent Americans to oppose conscription. In fact,
throughout American history the draft has been opposed by Americans
from across the political spectrum, from Henry David Thoreau
to Barry Goldwater to Bill Bradley to Jesse Ventura. Organizations
opposed to conscription range from the American Civil Liberties
Union to the United Methodist Church General Board of Church
and Society, and from the National Taxpayers Union to the Conservative
Caucus. Other major figures opposing conscription include current
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Nobel Laureate Milton
Friedman.
In conclusion, I ask my colleagues to
stand up for the long-term military interests of the United States,
individual liberty, and values of the Declaration of Independence
by co-sponsoring my sense of Congress resolution opposing reinstatement
of the military draft.
Ron Paul, M.D.,
represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas in the United
States House of Representatives.
|